Published: 10:38pm, 13 Mar 2025Updated: 11:06pm, 13 Mar 2025
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Thursday that his Labour government would take closer control of England’s revered but flagging National Health Service as he vowed to streamline the British state.
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Starmer said he would abolish the NHS England body to “cut bureaucracy” and bring management of the almost 80-year-old health service “back into democratic control”.
The government said the move would cut red tape and save “hundreds of millions of pounds a year” that would be “reinvested in frontline services”.
“That money could and should be spent on nurses, doctors, operations, GP appointments,” Starmer said during a visit in northeast England.
The previous Conservative-led administration established NHS England in 2013 as a so-called arms-length body to deliver health services.
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But Starmer argued that decisions involving billions of pounds of taxpayer money should not be taken by such a body.
